Santogold Sued By Santo Gold, Opening For Coldplay

As always, Stereogum is your one stop shop for Santi White litigation and tourdates news. Santogold’s sorta blowing up, right? Cue the lawsuits. It’s not everyday I get to use my entirely rusted law school skills, so thanks to the Lustigman Firm, P.C. for emailing us their amusing 20-page complaint (it opens by quoting “The rules I break … Me I’m a taker” from the hook of “Creator”!), filed in US Southern District Court of New York against Santogold, Downtown, and Lizard King Records, on behalf of Santo Gold. Who is Santo Gold? Plaintiff refers you to Clause 2 under Nature Of The Action:

Performing as Santo Gold since 1983, Plaintiff Santo Rigatuso has earned a cult following for his unique, and sometimes bizarre songs, movies, and infomercial appearances.

Here are the Santos, side by side:

That’s pretty great and is also Stereogum’s EXHIBIT A because along with “infringing” Santo’s “mark,” Plaintiffs allege some image appropriation: namely that Santi had her backup dancers wear sunglasses on national television, and Santo Gold also wore sunglasses. Plaintiff rests, your honor.

Before we go any further: ? is lawyer shorthand for Plaintiff, ? is the symbol for Defendant. So! ? allege that by ? releasing and marketing Santogold, and buying up Santogold-related domains (aside from santogold.com, which was already registered by ?), Santogold is “crushing ?’s hopes of continuing his music and acting career.” Hahahaha. Oh you probably don’t get why that’s funny yet. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present in person, Santo Gold:

I think we can all agree it’s definitely Santogold that is the biggest obstacle to Santo Gold’s future in entertainment. This one is pretty great because the intro features Sydney Pollack! If Sydney Pollack was a terrible actor and in the intro to an infomercial for Santo Gold:

Worth noting, ? allege that Santogold gave an interview to trashmenagerie.com in which she admitted to wearing jewelry similar to ?. Also worth noting, the complaint makes specific mention of the Bud Light and Converse campaigns. Which is smart lawyering, but also sorry testimony to the decrepit state of affairs within the music industry: even Santo Gold knew the suit wouldn’t be worth filing on record sales alone.

Santo Gold seeks an injunction barring ? from the use of “Santogold” or anything “substantially similar”; compensatory damages (i.e. cash money); profits incurred from use of “the infringing mark”; and, awesomely, recall and destruction of all ?’s items already in commerce infringing on the “Santo Gold” mark. However, my legal skills suggest he could settle out of court for a free pair of Converse and a six pack of Bud Light.

I’m no expert on Lanham Act litigation (music/art law, corporate securities, and international law, at your service) and all of this may seem frivolous, but as Dan Snaith can tell you, it is no joke. Santi if you need an unqualified lawyer, email me. In happier Santogold news, she’s been tapped to open two legs of the Coldplay tour. (The guys have good taste in openers — remember, they brought out Black Mountain back in the X&Y days). Here are all of Santi’s dates:

I remember seeing those Santo Gold infomercials at like 3 in the morning back in the late 80’s and I could never tell if they were joking or not. There’d be a wresting match going on and then all of a sudden they’d try and sell you some shitball jewelry.

How is this frivolous? He had the name first. No matter what your opinion of the quality of the material he created under this name, the fact remains that it is/was (apparently) his livelihood. Wouldn’t you be kind of pissed if someone appropriated the name “Stereogum” and was way more successful with it than you?

Sure this Santo Gold dude is pretty terrible (perhaps even more terrible than the more famous Santogold), but you have to admit, he kinda has a case.

she and her label should have known better. once they started googling the name and saw that santogold.com was already registered her label should have put the kaibosh(sp?) on that shit. It wasn’t too late for her to change names even though she was getting a buzz as “Santogold”. Shit even her nickname she got from a friend when young was probably because of the infomercials. I mean other artists have gone through name changes. Shit look at Common Sense to Common. I dig her to death but they should have been smarter about it when putting out the album. I hope she doesn’t get too fucked over because I seriously see that happening. Atleast she will loose some money.

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